Worldwide Sports News

Byington has gone back to the portal for more help after point guard and leading scorer Jason Edwards left for Providence. Guard Duke Miles started 34 games last season for Oklahoma where he scored 9.4 points a game and shot 43% from 3-point range. Tyler Harris led Washington shooting 49.5% from 3-point range, and Jalen Washington spent the last three seasons at North Carolina.

UCF is one of five teams in the Big 12, ACC, SEC and Big Ten to return none of their scoring from last season. The Knights had to dig into the transfer portal to remake their roster, finding veteran players looking for bigger opportunities on the Big 12 stage. There is a lot of uncertainty with the Knights this season.

Cameron Boozer’s extraordinary potential is evident from the way Tennessee coach Rick Barnes described him before the Duke freshman forward even played a college game that counts. “One of the best players in the country,” Barnes said after Boozer collected 24 points and 23 rebounds in No. 6 Duke’s 83-76 exhibition victory over No. 18 Tennessee on Sunday. Boozer ranks alongside Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa as the best players in a freshman class that’s loaded with star power at the top.

The Wildcats have reached the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 three of coach Tommy Lloyd's first four seasons and are hoping to make an even deeper March run with one of the nation's top recruiting classes. Arizona still has a solid core of players despite some key losses and several freshmen from a recruiting class ranked No. 2 in the 247 Sports composite who should have an immediate impact. Arizona's point guard has been solid since transferring from Alabama, going from spark off the bench his first season to a team leader last year.

Coach Bobby Hurley enters his 11th season in Tempe and the final year of his contract potentially needing a strong March run to keep his job. The Sun Devils haven't been to the NCAA Tournament since 2023 and are coming off a difficult injury-filled season. Hurley will have to do it with a roster that's almost entirely new, with one returning scholarship player.

Wes Miller goes into his fifth season leading a Bearcats program that has not made the NCAA Tournament since Mick Cronin's final season in 2019. Jizzle James, UC's leading scorer last season at 12.7 points per game, was dismissed from the program in August, but Miller rebuilt the roster by leading heavily on the transfer portal.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey urged the NCAA to rescind its decision to permit college athletes to wager on professional sports, describing the move as a “major step in the wrong direction.”